Hole-y cow!

Chicago weather has folks swerving around monster-sized potholes

February 08, 2008|By Chicago Tribune

While local drivers celebrated a brief respite from snow on Thursday, they still were forced to swerve and dodge around another familiar roadway hazard: the tire-popping, axle-bending, occasionally car-swallowing pothole.

The lingering effects of this winter's see-saw temperatures and frequent storms have created perfect conditions for potholes to erupt across city and suburban streets this winter, officials said.

Calls to the city's 311 number to report dangerous potholes are up tenfold this season compared to last year, Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said. On Tuesday, CDOT crews patched about 3,500 holes, Steele said, while on Thursday crews filled several holes along North Lake Shore Drive between Belmont and Foster Avenues, a particularly troublesome stretch this year.

In north suburban Lincolnwood, Steve Gershbein, manager of Cassidy Tire & Service, said his shop is selling about 80 tires a day, up from a daily average of about 20.

"It's good for business. But you feel sorry for people," Gershbein said. "They take it out on us like we're the bad guy. But there's nothing you can do about it. You can't go more than a block and a half without hitting one."

On Tuesday, a severe pothole on the Stevenson Expressway in Plainfield damaged several cars and caused a lane to be closed for about six hours, Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said.

Even Mayor Daley acknowledged the outbreak of potholes across Chicago on Thursday. But he said they're an inevitable part of the landscape this time of year.

"We go through this every year. Every year we have the pothole crisis, and we have to handle it as quickly as possible. And that is what they are doing," Daley said.

Potholes are caused by freeze-thaw cycles, which make the moisture in road pavement repeatedly contract and expand, eventually creating craters and cracks that can be several feet wide and inches deep. Typically, Chicago patches between 200,000 and 250,000 potholes a year, but this winter's fluctuations between sub-zero temperatures and unseasonable warmth may create higher than normal pothole numbers.

"It's been a real roller-coaster ride this season," Claffey said. "When the snow and ice comes, we pour salt on it. It melts, seeps into the ground, and when you get big 80,000-pound trucks pounding on areas that show signs of wear and tear, that's when you get big potholes forming."

Officials also said that roadways that have not been reconstructed for many years are notoriously prone to potholes. Southern portions of Lake Shore Drive and the Dan Ryan Expressway, which have seen extensive repair work recently, have prompted few complaints this winter, officials said, while northern stretches of Lake Shore Drive and sections of the Stevenson Expressway in Will County are especially sensitive to weather.

Daley acknowledged that North Lake Shore Drive is particularly bad. But he blamed the state, saying the city is trying to get Springfield to rebuild it.

The drive "has to be rebuilt," he said. "Otherwise you spend more and more money refilling potholes."